Croatia, Poland, Slovakia reaffirm importance of US partnership

The United States remains Europe's most important strategic partner, Prime Minister of Croatia Andrej Plenković and the presidents of Poland and Slovakia emphasized on Tuesday at the Three Seas Initiative summit.

Plenković, Karol Nawrocki and Peter Pellegrini held a press conference at the end of the first day of the Three Seas Initiative (3SI) summit in Dubrovnik, which continues on Wednesday with a business forum.

Poland and Croatia are co-founders of this format, and Slovakia will chair it next year, CE Report quotes HINA.

Nawrocki, a conservative politician who became president last year and whose Dubrovnik gathering is his first time representing his country at the Three Seas summit, repeatedly mentioned the relationship between Europe and the US during the gathering. Warsaw is considered one of Washington's closest allies on the Old Continent.

The Three Seas Initiative is "a driving force for transatlantic cooperation," the Polish president said at a press conference alongside the Croatian prime minister and his Slovak counterpart.

He called Poland, invited to the G20 summit that will be held in Miami this year, the spokesperson of the Three Seas at that meeting.

He called the invitation itself "recognition for the entire region" and for the members of the Initiative, which, if it were a country, would be the seventh-largest economy in the world.

Plenković said that "certain turbulences" that exist in public communication between the US and Europe are "transient" and expressed confidence that both sides of the Atlantic will "make efforts" to make the partnership strong.

The Croatian Prime Minister agrees that Europe must strengthen strategic autonomy, but stressed that it is crucial to maintain partnership relations with the US.

The US commitment to Central Europe is also demonstrated by the large American delegation that arrived in Dubrovnik – the third largest after the Croatian and Polish ones.

US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright also arrived there, and Croatia and the US signed a series of agreements that a member of the Trump administration said were "worth billions."

Among other things, this concerns the agreement on the Southern Gas Interconnection and the construction of a data center in Topusko.

Plenković said that these investments are "a new impulse for Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina", adding that there have been American investments before, but that "we have never witnessed such ambitious projects before."

At the conference, Nawrocki commented on an article by Polish Prime Minister and his political rival Donald Tusk, who questioned Washington's loyalty to Europe in the Financial Times.

The Polish president said that he "doesn't understand that narrative" and that his goal is "obviously to shake up Polish-American relations" which he described as "almost symbiotic in nature".

The Slovak president also rejected claims that the US is not loyal to Europe, adding that it is "logical" that if Washington invests in the continent, it will also care about its defense.

It will do this not only as a NATO partner, but also as a country that invests in protecting its interests, said Pellegrini.

His claim follows the words of Minister Wright, who stressed the day before that energy partnerships create "the most enduring alliances."

foto Damir SENČAR